Chinese tourists vital for EU growth

27 Nov Chinese tourists vital for EU growth

According to the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the Asian market is set to be a key market behind the growth of European tourism in the coming years.

Tajani also stated that tourism outflow and inflow will increase to 700 million by the year 2020. A significant increase from last year’s 500 million visitors.

The EU and China are set to organize a number of events to promote the year of tourism declared by both the EU and China so that more Chinese tourists opt for European holidays. The program is set to begin in Venice in January next year.

Yang Yanyi, Chinese ambassador to EU, had only positive words on Tajani’s and Katainen’s plans. She has praised the EU for stressing the importance of tourism on the GDP and jobs in Europe and said that she hopes for a “creative, coordinated, green, open and shared development”.

“Recognizing the importance of travel and tourism between China and Europe, the 19th China-EU Summit proclaimed 2018 as the year of tourism. We want to maximize the full potential of this important relationship, from all perspectives – economically, socially, and academically,” Yang said.

The ambassador also disclosed some interesting figures about Chinese tourists. As the leading tourism market of the world, 135 million Chinese travelled abroad in 2016 and have spent 251 billion dollars. The country predicts the outflow of travellers to reach 700 million in the next five years – a potential increase of more than 500%.

Chinese tourists are believed to spend more money abroad than other average tourists. Additionally they often fill up European hotels during some low seasons, such as the Chinese New Year.

Another bonus: they tend not to book beach holidays, which is “good both for Northern and Southern European countries,” Becerra said. “In the North, because they don’t really have that many sunny beaches; in Spain, because we don’t need any more tourists at the beaches and would rather have them visit our museums and cities.”

Despite this the Chinese market only represents 2 percent of the total international arrivals recorded in Europe.